The UMCOR Hotline

Helen Clark, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator, visited a joint UNDP, UMCOR Haiti, and Miyamoto International training site in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 24, in the context of Clark’s visit to Haiti two years into the recovery from the devastating January 2010 earthquake.

The three groups are working together through the UNDP CARMEN project. CARMEN is an acronym for Centres d'Appui pour le Renforcement des Maisons Endommagées or Support Centers for Strengthening Damaged Houses. It helps families and communities “build back better” in Haiti by providing them access to knowledge, information, and financial services for shelter and reconstruction.

Over the past three months, UMCOR Haiti and Miyamoto International have supplied hands-on training in best-building practices to more than 2,500 skilled workers and homeowners through CARMEN. Miyamoto International is a global earthquake and structural engineering firm that provides critical services to help sustain communities and industries.

UMCOR Haiti and Miyamoto International provided beneficiaries basic knowledge of construction, costs, and repair processes as a means of consumer protection. More than 600 families received grants to purchase quality materials and are repairing their homes under the watchful eye of CARMEN engineers.

UMCOR Haiti continues to work with partners to support families and communities with livelihood interventions, shelter and reconstruction support, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services.

With the support of partners and donors, CARMEN will contribute effectively to the reconstruction of Haiti by training resilient communities in the fundamentals of construction to meet the requirements of Haiti’s Ministry of Works, Transport, and Communications.

Your gift to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance #418325, supports UMCOR partnerships such as this one in Haiti.

UMCOR continues to respond to this year’s spring storms, including last week’s tornadoes in Texas. Please pray for all those affected as they begin the process of rebuilding and recovering.

Also, please pray for communities that are bracing for the seasonal onslaught of tornadoes and floods that affect areas of the US each year. UMCOR continues to prepare and needs help from United Methodists and others to replenish its inventory of cleaning buckets to provide immediate assistance to families affected by these kinds of disasters.

In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the UMCOR Coffee Project with fair-trade partner Equal Exchange, UMCOR has launched its own coffee, called “Hope’s Blend,” an UMCOR fellowship coffee. Watch UMCOR’s new video, available this week at umcor.org, to learn more about this new blend and how making fair-trade purchases benefits small famers in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Read more.

This year’s unusually mild winter and warm start to spring have fueled a series of dangerous storms across the United States. Use this new church bulletin insert to share UMCOR’s response to these and future storms. The insert also contains giving information, including the new Spring Storms 2012 Advance, to support UMCOR’s response.

UMCOR provides emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find out more about UMCOR’s ministries, please visitumcor.org. You can donate to any project by placing a contribution in the offering plate at a local United Methodist church; by sending a check to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068; or by calling 1-800-554-8583, where credit card donations are accepted. You can also give online by clicking on any of the “Give Now” links. UMCOR is exempt from tax under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States and qualifies for the maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.

And, please pray for those who are hungry, displaced, sick or in poverty because of these and other natural and human-made disasters, and for the workers who minister to them.

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